"Burj no Views"

Sejak dua menjak keadaan ekonomi melecet nih, prices of apartment rents have gone down tremendously. Rent at a prime area in Dubai has gone down 35% (some areas even more), dan sesapa yg teringin nak duduk tempat2 yg baguih2 nih, bila lagi… inilah masanya…!!

Sempena teman dah tak sanggup nak duduk kat Sharjah (menempuh traffic jam tiap2 pagi), maka teman pun sedang mencari rumah apartment yg baru…

Oleh sebab2 tertentu, teman mencari rumah dekat dgn Dubai Mall ler… mula2 pikio nak duduk kat Bur Dubai…. Tetapi lepas tengok2 apartment kat situ, rasa kurang pulak selera… Maka ternampak ler satu advertisement ni…. “Burj Views” apartments…

Huaaa… bangunan baru bukak, dan baling batu dari Dubai Mall pun boley sampai… (ahaks…!! Maknanya sebelah Burj Dubai jer tuh…). Gi tengok2… hmmm, above budget, but after calculating, and calculating… and calculating, and calculating again… potong sana, potong sini, ok, let’s go for it…!! Kata kata semangat – we only live once…!!

So sementara sewa tengah affordable nih, maka merasalah tinggal di sebelah Burj Dubai… Next year, may be have to move elsewhere oledi…. Errr, anyhow, name of the place is Burj Views, but my new apartment at level 3, does not have the view of the Burj Dubai… Maka, unofficially, I have renamed my apartment as “Burj no Views”.. ahaks….!!

Dah siap masuk this cmng wknd, will snap gambo2 (termasuk the view from the apartment) and upload here…

Enjoy it while you can…!! Hidup hanya sekali….!! And the best motto of them all (sempena anah Peghak sejati…) – bio pape, ase begaye…!!

Yeaaaa hah…!!!!! (Koboi padang pasir menjerit…!!)

What goes around, comes around....

Memang gua rasa mulut gua ada sket rasa masin laaa….

Baru jer last wknd complaint sebab kena langgar by one car... guess what happened today…? Alaaa… teka laaa.., teka….!! (ala2 main tikam dulu2…;))

Pagi nih, went to the office early as usual… sebab masih ada masa, I went to the bank in a nearby building, hal aper lagi, hal Emirates Bank yg tak tentu hala, deduct my monthly car loan installment twice, dan lepaih tuh, charge me some more for apparently late payment…. Hellllllooooo….!! Nak mampos…?!!! (to be fair, Emirates Bank has just recently upgraded their backend system, dan segala menda jadik huru hara lepaih tuh… am not the only victim, akaun company pun dah hancur kucar kacir, that the boss is so upset about it and instructed Radha to move the company account to another bank…)

So pegilah ke bangunan tuh with my car, parked the car then go to bank branch… ingatkan bukak jam 8am, tapi branch kat tempat keghojer nih, bukak jam 9am pulak… Hampeh…!! So, go back opis loorrr…

Tak tahulah kenapa… tengah pikio pasai amende ler agaknya… I get into the car, and slowly reverse the car….

“kedegang….!!”

(errr… itu hanya sound effect, k…:))

Gua sudah langgar sama satu kereta yg tengah berenti perpendicular to the car park…!! Astaghfirullaaahhhh….!!! ”Ape ke he”nya boley jadik cam tu pulak…?

Tadi masa nak ke kereta, tak nampak pun any other car parked behind.... it was like 8am in the morning, not many car yet near that area… and I was reversing the car carelessly without looking behind properly…

Cepat2 turun, tengok drebar dia….!! Ahhh… Sh*t…!! Nampak gaya macam Emarati lady, kereta dia kereta Infiniti…!! Keter mahai tuh….!!! Alamakkkkk…!!!

Dia bukak pintu, gua teghuih mintak maaf profusely… quickly admitted that it was my fault (abih tuh, salah saper lagi…?)… gosok2 kat calar2 kereta dia tuh (again sambil mintak maaf profusely…), and said to her that I will pay for the repair work that need to be done (to at least repaint the scratched area, no dent, just scratches)…

Kakak Emarati nih pulak dia pi phone kawan dia (mintak “backup reinforcement” ler tuh agaknya….). sambil dia tengah bincang2 arab dgn kawan dia, gua terdengar dia cakap…. “Philippines....!!” errr.... quickly, I cut her conversation,... “errr… excuse me, am not Filipino….”, memang pantang org cakap gua Pinoy… mintak tolong sket…!! (sempat lagi tuh…!! Haha…)

Dia cakap kat gua dgn nada tak puas ati…., “Why you hit me? My car so big, you cannot see…? We are in parking… how can you hit me? why?”

“this is bad…!! I just had anthr accident earlier today…!! And now a 2nd one…”… tambah dia lagi… kaedahnyaaaa…!!! (gua terdetik kat ati…). Fuuhhhh…!!! Must be a very bad day (and it has just started, it was 8am, remember…?)..

Gua cakap mintak maap banyak2 again… and told her not to worry, I will do the necessary to get the car repaired/repainted… “don’t get this accident to upset you and spoil your day”, gua cakap (again, baru 8am tuhhhh…!! I can imagine how she feels…). Gua tried to calm her down, she was obviously upset & pasrah at the same time… (like she has accepted the fact that today would be a sh*tty day…!!)… Told her not to get upset, don’t worry about it, and I will take care of it….

bila dia dah calm down Kakak Emarati nih, … dia kata, “lemme talk to my fren, and we’ll decide what to do…”… dlm ati teman… “melayanglah duit aku bulan nih utk repaint keter dia…”

Gua tunggu2 dia sembang dgn kawan dia… lepaih tuh, bila dia dah abis sembang, dia kata… “nevermind, you go…. But you drive carefully after this…”

Perrghhhh….!!!! Gua said thank you and mintak maap sekali lagi… gua cepat2 ciao sebelum kakak Emarati nih tukar pikiran…. Hehe…

Fuuuhhhh semangat….!!

Hmmm… tu lah akibatnya bila careless mcm nih… tak bangun tido lagi agaknya… anyhow… To that Kakak Emarati, agn… gua mintak maap ler sebab meninggalkan bekas on your car… and tenkiu very much for your kind understanding….

Terpikio jugak nak offer dia gua belanja makan… but, but, better ciao sebelum dia tuko pikiran… lagipun, nak mampos gi offer belanja kat pompuan Emarati…? Kang dia kata gua buat indecent advances lak kang…!! Lariiikkkk…..!!!!

Itulah depa kata..., ”what goes around, comes around....!!!”... rite…?

Dubai and economic crisis.... effect

Dunno if you guys have noticed it… but I have the impression that there is lesser and lesser traffic jam in Dubai… well, it’ not that the traffic jam is completely smooth…. But one can notice that the traffic has eased off a bit…

Eg. Going back from work at 6pm (ok, ok… 5h30pm… sekarang nih, no more waiting till 6pm, 5h40pm.. 5h45pm, gua ciao…! Mau tunggu apa lagi sampai lewat mlm), there is lesser traffic compared to before… tak banyak sangat kereta rushing to over take one and another, and/or cutting queues…

May be there is actually a lot of people who have returned to their country due to the economic crisis… banyak gak retrenchment happening here and there, but I didn’t expect it to have such an impact on the traffic here… kat Dubai ni, you don’t really know the actual figures on some stuffs, because the government or the companies do not release infos to the market.. semua simpan bawak tikar… cover bagus2…

Well… just putting a word about it… one thing for sure, I am happy that the traffic has eased off…. Kalau tak, memang aku sentiasa sumpah seranah pagi2…

What's new... work... 2

btw, forgot something....

as mentioned before, I hate traffic jam especially when you go to office in the morning... due to the increasing traffic congestion in the morning..., I have decided to go to the office even earlier than 5h45am...

guess what time...?

gua keluar pegi opis jam 5 pagi sekarang... maknanya gua bangun pagi utk ke opis jam 4h15am latest... sampai opis jam 6pagi... tenang hati tak ada traffic jam, tak ada crazy drivers yg potong queue, yg membuatkan awal2 pagi idup aku tak tenteram... yang asyik hon2 tak tentu arah...

masuk opis, man man lai... buat kerojer slow slow, jam 7 pagi boss besar yg sarat mengandung tuh sampai opis... nobody disturbs me before that...

jam 5h30ptg sharp, gua ciao dari opis... gila ko nak tunggu lama2 lagi....? lagipun, aku sampai awal bukan aku termenung tak buat amende... terus aku buat kerja apa yg patut...

semoga mendapat sales berjuta2 lemon.... amiiinnnnnnn.....!!

What's the use of having nice cars....

Nissan Infiniti

Lexus
BMW X6

Nissan 350Z

Corvette

Lexus

if you are going to get stucked in the traffic jam like this...?

Welcome to Sharjah....!!

I was bored...

was stucked in the traffic jam on the way home.... got bored, and started playing with my handset... this is the result... hehe

Gua dah tak tahu dah apa gua nak buat masa2 traffic jam nih.... radio boring, CD asyik ulang2 CD yg sama jer.... what to do? you tell me...?

Traffic jam lagi...

I just hate traffic jam...!! I find that getting stuck in trafic jam is really a total waste of time (especially if you are the one driving...). can't do anything else at that time except listening to the news, to the radio programs, to the music .... or if you are crazy enough, to listen to self motivation CDs... oh yeah, there is another activity, menganyam ketupat with other friends on the mobile phone... hehe

when I came to Dubai, my office was at Dubai Airport Free Zone, in order to save money, I took an apartment just after entering Sharjah (a neighbouring emirate). To give you a better picture, it's like working in KL, but staying in PJ... and office is at Bangsar...). Rental was lower (much much more lower) than in Dubai, and my work place was just nearby... Life was good, left home just after 7am, and would arrive at the office 15 to 20mn after that...

6 months after that, the company shifted office. Why? because we were growing big time and the office just couldn't accommodate the number of people joining the company... We moved to Dubai Silicon Oasis... It was further but thanks to Emirates Road, it was not that far... took me about 40mn to reach the office from home. Had to leave home a bit earlier (6h45am) in order not to be caught in the traffic jam... would normally arrive at the office around 7h30am...

then I left that company... and join this new company Sagem Orga located at Dubai Internet City... basically it is at the other end of Dubai... so I have to travel across Dubai to get to my work place... result : have to go out at 6am in the morning, if not, I will get caught in the massive traffic jam. travelling time - 1 hour... going home is worse, it will take about 1h15mn to reach home (if I am lucky)....

and since school has started, combined with the Ramadan month rush... traffic has gotten worse in the morning and during coming back home (everybody finishes at around 3pm to 4pm..., and there is a mad rush of people trying to be home before Iftar, which would be around 6h30pm)

Oh my goodness... I dunno how long I would stand staying here in Sharjah... it's just getting more and more difficult, not to mention the money that I have to spend for petrol & toll....

siksa jiwa & raga...

6am in the morning, you enter the main road, and ther eis alrdy a traffic jam... it seems that traffic starts as early as 5h30am....

but traffic eases up further down, especially when you are near to the toll gate. People take alternative route to avoid paying toll...

Toll gate at Garhoud Bridge... not so many cars early morning, toll system is like in Singapore, you have a tag in your car, and you just go through the toll gate... katchnnnnggggg...!! 4 dirham...!!

nearing to my office, there is another toll gate : Al Barsha toll gate.... katchnnngggg!!! another 4 dirham... daily return trip will cost me AED16...!! patut Sheikh kat Dubai nih kaya raya... hehe..

in the afternoon at 4pm... mad rush of people going home for iftar

on the way back to Sharjah.... bumper to bumper...

siksanya menghabiskan masa 1jam 15mn (atau lebih) dlm kereta.... boring giler...!! dah la lapar... banyakkan bersabar...!!

Dubai got double decker bus now you know...!! (just started service a month ago). aiyoo, this city state is really becoming like Singapore.... Lee Kuan Yew is a member of the advisory panel to Dubai state government... habis laaa... hehe...

Conclusion : once I finish my current contract with the landlord, I will definitely have to move to Dubai...!! masa habis in travelling time jer.... not productive...!

You will not believe it.... accident again...!!

exact same place as yesterday, 3 kereta berlanggo hari ni... idak ler teman pegi turun bawah menyibuk2 ambik gambo mcm semlm, tapi ambik gambo dari dlm opis jer laaa... gambo kat bawah nih gambo kereta yg paling teruk hancur.... 2 kereta lagi, depa dah drive slow2 ke bahu jalan

kalau kat Mesia, tentu ada yg datang malam2 kat tempat nih, "mintak nombor"... (click to enlarge photo).

kalau org dulu2, tentu depa pikir tempat nih bawak sial, dan perlu kena samah.... atau mungkin bangunan opis ni yg kurang "ong"....? nampak bangunan opis PCard nih jer, tumpuan terganggu sampai accident... (?) nasib baik gua kat sini sampai hujung bulan nih jer... kah kah kah...!!

wartawan seybuk : accident dahsat depan opis

amaran : ulasan ini mempunyai beberapa gambo yg mengerikan... kalau ada sakit jantung ker, sakit ahmar ker... atau jenih2 yg boleh pitam bila nampak darah, sila blah pegi tempat lain... teman tak akan ambik tanggungjawab atas apa2 yg berlaku pada mike...:)

Lori terbalik depan opis

1 victim - the driver, yg tercampak keluar half way, and pinned down by the lorry (click on photo to enlarge)

mayat yg dah terkerat2 tuh, dah dicover dek Polis supaya org mcm wartawan seybuk nih tak bertambah seybuk (click on photo to enlarge)

kat bawah nih videonya... (sikit jer, coz Pak Arab marah tak kasi ambik video)

Too Much Traffic!!!

Merana ler kome kalau sangkut kat traffic jam kat Dubai nih...

"TOO MUCH...!!"

No special event, normal day traffic jam... Sakit kome..! Sakit...!!